Not In Our Town traveled to Charleston, South Carolina to document stories from the community in the days after the horrific hate crime attack that took the lives of nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015. This short video is designed to prompt reflection and discussion for community and faith groups about how we can take local action in response to hate.

As the debacle of Donald Sterling riveted the attention of many this week it shone a light on (again) the benevolent racism that is so persistent in our country. Like many, Mr. Sterling would not consider himself a racist. In the tape released this week by TMZ he admonishes his biracial African-American and Latina girlfriend for taking photos with black people and posting them on the web. He says “Yeah it bothers me a lot that you want to promo, broadcast, that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?”

King Chavez High School Starts NIOS Campaign
Students at King Chavez High School in in San Diego, CA are ready to “break the silence” when it comes to bullying. A pack of diligent upstanders organized the school’s first anti-bullying conference June 1. Mara Mardrigal-Weiss of the San Diego County Office of Education was the keynote speaker.
According to the event Facebook page, students have been working tirelessly since summer 2012 to create workshops that address bullying issues adolescents face today. Their main goal was to bring awareness to the local community about the negative effects of bullying.
Not in Our School fully supports King Chavez High students’ ambition and passion. If you would like to start a NIOS campaign at your school, then check out our Not in Our School Campaign Quickstart Guide here! It is a great resource for potential upstanders to fight bullying.
Bossard Team Dons Turbans in Solidarity

Mapping hate across U.S.Data visualization company Floating Sheep has produced a fascinating map of the mainland U.S. which charts the use of hate speech on twitter. The so-called “hate map” shows the frequency of geotagged tweets containing certain certain racist, homophobic and ableist terms, the end result being an interactive map highlighting hate hot spots across the country.

In March a student group calling itself the White Student Union announced plans to conduct patrols of Towson University campus in Maryland to address "black predators." This led members of the black student body, university administration, and others who denounce the controversial student organization's views to take action. In this article for The Burton Wire, Towson University Assistant Professor Tara Bynum accounts how students responded to intolerance and why it's important to learn from history and tell our stories.
Towson University students march in response to the call for patrols on campus by members of a non-affiliated white power organization, via Burton Wire.

This is the first in a series on hate crime in the UK.
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the high-profile murder of Stephen Lawrence, a young black man who was killed by a group of white men chanting racist slogans while he was waiting for the bus in London.
Since her son’s murder in 1993, Doreen Lawrence has campaigned for better
community policing and increased opportunities for black and minority ethnic youth in Britain. CREDIT: The Guardian
At the time of Lawrence’s murder in 1993, hate crime laws did not exist in the UK, but by the time the case was tried in 2011 his kilIlers were given sentence enhancements for racial bias, and religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity had also been recognized as protected categories under British law.

Davis, CA community supports victim of anti-LGBT hate crime
CREDIT: Davis Enterprise
Three hundred people in Davis, CA attended a candlelit vigil on March 16 for Mikey Partida, a Davis resident who was badly beaten earlier this month in what police are investigating as a hate crime.